Washington, D.C. (Special) -- Back from a five-nation tour of the Middle East and North Africa, Rep. Bob Filner (D-San Diego) said no one--and especially not Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu--should have been surprised by Yasser Arafat's decision last week to back away from a unilateral declaration of independence for Palestine.

The congressman said he had been told last month by the heads of four Arab states that they had spoken to Arafat about how declaring independence so soon before the May 17 elections in Israel would almost guarantee a victory for Netanyahu.  King Abdullah of Jordan, President Hosni Mubarek of Egypt, King Hassan II of Morocco, and President Zine Ben Ali of Tunisia all told Filner's congressional delegation that Arafat understood and concurred.

The congressional delegation was led by Rep. Benjamin Gilman, R-New York, who serves as chairman of the House International Relations Committee. A meeting with Netanyahu was the first stop on the delegation's Middle Eastern itinerary. "Bibi was in the middle of his campaign obviously, and he met with us in campaign style, and I sort of got annoyed and I almost said, 'Bibi don't spin us; we are the spinners, we know what you are doing here.'"

Bibi Netanyahu, left, with Bob and Jane Filner

For Netanyahu to make an issue of the unilateral declaration was "disingenuous," and a matter of
"posturing," in Filner's view. Although Netanyahu been assured by many sources that Arafat would not declare independence on May 4, he was "yelling 'Don't do it!'" 

Filner said that by pretending that the declaration was a real danger, Netanyahu was cynically attempting to manipulate Israeli voters' perceptions so he could take credit if Arafat put off the declaration, or say he was the only one who had stood tough if Arafat somehow had gone ahead with the declaration. 

"I thought it was cynical," Filner said. "He (Netanyahu) disagreed with me. He thought it was a real issue."

There was some additional byplay between Filner and a member of Netanyahu's staff who had heard that Filner was related by marriage to the Labor party candidate for Prime Minister, Ehud Barak.

"I hear you are related to Ehud?" the aide made a point of asking Filner.

"How did you know that?"

"Oh, we find out"

Filner said the unidentified aide told him that he used to be with the Mossad.

The relationship is a fairly distant one. Filner's maternal aunt is married to a man named Brog--the same name Barak had before he Hebraicized it. Barak is a cousin of Filner's uncle by marriage.

With Rep. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Rep. Earl Hillard, D-Ala., also participating in the tour, the delegation went from Israel to Egypt in time to attend a Passover seder hosted by Israel's ambassador to Egypt.

Filner said holding a seder in modern Egypt to celebrate the Jews' liberation from ancient Egypt seemed quite ironic, especially since earlier in the day the delegation had toured the museum where bodies of the pharaohs are kept in mummified state.

Yet rather than highlighting the irony, the Israeli ambassador conducted the seder as if he were in Tel Aviv, reading straight through the seder in Hebrew. Besides Hillard, who is Christian, the delegation included about 20 congressional staff members who were not Jewish, and Filner said he spent much of the seder trying to whisper explanations to them.

Besides the Israelis and the visiting American delegation, others attending the seder were members of Egypt's small Jewish community, including Carman Weinstein, the leader of the successful campaign to prevent the bones at Cairo's ancient Jewish cemetery from being rattled by construction work.

"Half of Cairo, it seems, is cemeteries and mausoleums. People, because they don't have housing, have taken over these places-- it is sad and depressing," Filner said. "There is one ninth century Jewish cemetery (El Basitan) there and this lady has been leading the effort to 1) clean it out of squatters and 2) make sure that special ramps were put up, so that there are no vibrations during construction.

"There are only 100 Jews left and they went through this incredible expense and politics to make sure that this happened," Filner said admiringly. "She is there all by herself challenging the government, saying 'you have to protect the cemetery.'"

Another important Jewish site is threatened not by construction but by the elements. "There is an old synagogue at the place believed to be where Moses was found in the bulrushes by Pharaoh's daughter," Filner said. "There is an attempt to save that site, which is now under a basement, and there is groundwater coming up all over it and destroying these old buildings."

The congressman said he was particularly impressed both by King Abdullah of Jordan and the new Queen, Rania. He suggested that the couple has all the potential of becoming American media darlings equivalent even to the late Princess Diana of Great Britain.

"They are the most personable couple you can imagine," Filner enthused. "She is beautiful and modern and he is incredibly personable....I was surprised how articulate and knowledgeable he was just a few weeks after being thrust into it (by the death of his father King Hussein). He is short; she is taller than he, but he seems perfectly secure. There is no sense that he was in over his head or that he didn't think he could meet his obligations. I was very impressed."

Filner said Jordan receives "almost nothing" in foreign aid compared to Egypt and Israel, despite the fact that "it has been a good partner." He said he was concerned about how an ongoing drought might affect the Middle Eastern peace equation.

"There is suspicion because both Israel and Jordan are in need of water and Israel controls the water from the sea of Galilee, that they are going to cut off some of the water supplies. I hope that they don't. This is something the United States should be in there right away--something the United States should not allow to happen. They have to figure out a way for both to get the water they need. You don't want to go to war about water."

On a side trip in Jordan, the congressional delegation visited a "refugee camp," which Filner said was far more comfortable than he had expected. "I had this idea of tents and sand but there were streets and houses," the congressman said. "It is no longer a 'camp' in the way we think of it. They have become little cities. Houses and stores, schools; you have tens of thousands of people living there. They are obviously making progress in terms of economics; they are not the poorest. All the kids were well dressed, and there weren't a lot of beggars around."

Ever the campaigner, Filner taught the Palestinian children his first name, and they responded by chanting "Bob! Bob! Bob!"

In Tunisia, the delegation visited a home for the Jewish aged, learning that in the city of Tunis the estimated Jewish population is less than 100. "There is one young guy who has come back who we sat with. He got educated in Paris and came back. He is in his late 20's, and I think he was the only one there who is under 60." The delegation also visited a World War II-era American military cemetery, and Filner found Jewish graves are marked with the same reverence as those of other religions.

Tunisia "has a long history of women's freedom, as opposed to other Arab states," Filner said.

In Morocco, Filner said, "they are very proud of their Jewish community, and have had Jews living there since the Spanish Expulsion (in 1492)." Andre Azoulay, "the chief adviser to the king, is Jewish, and we met with him." King Hassan II spent "an hour with us," and impressed the delegation as a "very gentle man, very smart--you can see how these people have power besides the army. He does a weekly show in which he teaches the Koran on television. He sees himself as a religious leader and he takes it very seriously. It's like what we might do on the Torah."

King Hassan, center, arms folded in front is  surrounded by members of U.S. congressional delegation, aides and congressional spouses

Filner said one of the best aspects of a congressional tour is the relationships that traveling members of Congress begin to build with each other. During regular sessions, they often head back to their districts over the weekend, so members of Congress rarely have the opportunity to socialize together in Washington D.C.

Yet, Filner said, the ability to be successful in Congress depends on creating a network of personal relationships with people who exercise power through Congress's committee system.